Commandment back at winning distance in Jim Dandy
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Maybe Commandment can be successful at a mile and a quarter, and perhaps he’ll get a chance to prove that at another point in time. But he already has proven himself to be effective at distances shorter than 10 furlongs, reeling off four consecutive victories from seven furlongs to 1 1/8 miles over a five-month period bridging his 2- and early 3-year-old seasons.
Saturday, following two attempts at 1 1/4 miles – including a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes – Commandment is back at 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. The Jim Dandy, the local prep for the Grade 1 Travers at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 29, drew only five horses. Four – Renegade, Chip Honcho, and Silent Tactic, in addition to Commandment – are graded stakes winners. Asked and Answered, a maiden, is filler.
The last time Commandment ran 1 1/8 miles, he overcame a slow pace and outfinished The Puma to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby by a nose at Gulfstream Park in March. A slow pace seems likely in the Jim Dandy with only Chip Honcho having any legitimate early speed.
Trainer Brad Cox is adding blinkers to Commandment’s equipment, which he hopes will help him run the turns better than he has been.
“I feel like he stays on well, but he doesn’t carry the rider through the turns sometimes maybe as well as I would like,” Cox said. “Since the Belmont, he’s trained with them off and on and the riders that have been on him seem to think they keep him a little more focused, so I’m hopeful it can propel him forward a little bit.”
Commandment has worked five times, all at Churchill Downs, since the Belmont, and Cox believes he’s training better now than he was then.
“I loved the way he breezed leading up to the Belmont, I really liked that,” Cox said. “We’ve added these blinkers for these works leading up to the Jim Dandy and I think his works have been better. I liked all of his works, but I really liked his last two. They’ve been really good and I think the best part was the gallop-out.”
Flavien Prat, aboard for the Florida Derby win, has the call from post 5.
Renegade this spring won the Sam Davis at Tampa Bay Downs and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. If not for drawing the rail, he might have gone off favored in the Kentucky Derby. Still, after getting bothered some in the first 100 yards, Renegade came with a strong closing kick that fell a neck short to Golden Tempo.
Heading into the Belmont, trainer Todd Pletcher had some doubts whether Renegade was fully recovered from the Derby run. In the Belmont, Renegade had a bit of a cluttered trip, finding himself in and among horses before tipping four wide in the stretch, just inside of Golden Tempo and Commandment. He ran with those two until the eighth pole, but not beyond, finishing third, beaten 5 1/4 lengths.
“He never found a clear path really. He was always in between, in behind, eating a lot of dirt,” said Pletcher, who has won the Jim Dandy eight times. “He’s a tough horse, he overcomes adversity I think he kept trying but it wasn’t a clean trip.”
Pletcher believes Renegade came out of the Belmont Stakes better than he did the Derby, and the eight weeks between races has been a plus.
“I think his energy level’s been very good, he’s put on some weight, seems a little more enthusiastic. I feel like the time has done him well,” Pletcher said. “We were doing better each week leading into the Belmont, but in retrospect, I think we were still a week or two away from getting back to where we were before the Arkansas and Kentucky derbies.”
Chip Honcho had good results earlier in his career when racing on or near the front end. He set the pace and was beaten only a half-length by Paladin in the Grade 2 Risen Star. After finishing third in the Preakness, Chip Honcho won the Grade 3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown from a stalking fourth.
“The Preakness was a solid run, but as big as he is, that racetrack [had] way too much material for him,” said Asmussen, a three-time Jim Dandy winner. “I still think he ran fairly well. We had a ton of confidence in him going into the Ohio Derby.”
Chip Honcho breaks from the rail under Jose Ortiz on Saturday.
“Looking at the race on paper it appears he will be on the lead,” Asmussen said. “The mile and an eighth is going to be a lot for him and the competition is excellent. Not very many of them, but boy they can run.”
Silent Tactic is a horse that did his best running when able to take advantage of a fast pace. He won the Southwest at Oaklawn from next to last in a 12-horse field and came within a nose of Class President in the Grade 2 Rebel. He was beaten fourth lengths by Renegade in the Arkansas Derby when dealing with a foot issue, which has kept him away from the races since March 28.
Asked and Answered did run his best race when going from turf to dirt when second in a one-mile maiden race in June. He would have to improve immeasurably to be a factor here.
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